MMO Weekly: The EA Louse Story Examined

20 Oct 2010 at 03:43:40 by Jeff Hollis

Hail, my fellow wanderers of the virtual universes, and welcome to this week's infested edition of MMO Weekly.  In this week's write-up, we'll examine the mad ravings of a disgruntled employee, and what these ravings may (or may not) reveal about the MMO industry, and a very promising game that everyone is looking forward to playing. 

It was clearly the most interesting, and most gossiped about event in the MMO industry this week.  I am, of course, referrring to a post from a very disgruntled EA employee.  This individual, calling him/herself the EA Louse, is about to be laid off, and is utterly enraged by developments at EA Mythic / Mythic Bioware, or whatever EA's MMO branch is calling itself these days. 

The Louse had several interesting things to say.  Of primary interest was the story behind the disappointing performance of Warhammer Online.  The Louse, who worked directly on that project, gave gamers everywhere the scoop. 

Warhammer was, if you'll remember a couple of years back, supposed to be the next big MMO.  It certainly had a lot of promise, but according to the Louse, it was badly mismanaged.  The big issue was that the project heads just didn't know what they were doing, and Mark Jacobs, the head of Mythic, was completely disconnected from the project.  The various project heads simply didn't focus on the important aspects of the game, rejected ideas from the developers out of hand, and appeared to have a very disjointed set of priorities.

To make matters infinitely worse, EA got tired of Warhammer being repeatedly pushed back and delayed.  Essentially, EA forced Mythic to release the game to the public before it was ready.  This, as we have discussed many, many times before in this column, is the deadliest sin of all in the MMO industry. 

I'm not sure why, but no one seems to have learned the lesson that WoW taught us:  release your MMO only after it's polished and near-perfect.  If developers follow this rule, gamers will love their games.  They'll buy copy after copy.  They'll over-clog the servers.  And the game will make gazillions of dollars, Euros, and yen.

Another major screw-up was the fact that Warhammer did not imitate the PvP-oriented endgame of Dark Age of Camelot.  DAoC was a major MMO a few years back, largely because the endgame was so dynamic.  DaoC's endless PvP seiges and battles were simply outstanding, and they rewarded players for being solid players.  In fact, most players felt it was the single best thing about DAoC.  And yet, despite the fact that everyone wanted a similar feature in WAR, Rob Denton, Paul Barnett, Jeff Hickman, and the other senior designers/visionaries simply wouldn't emulate DAoC's most outstanding feature.

The Mythic Team at E3 in 2008

The Louse gave us some scoop on other matters related to Mythic.  Remember Sanya Weathers, the woman who pioneered the concept of community management in the MMO industry?  According to the Louse, she was fired for publicly arguing with Mythic president Mark Jacobs.  In regard to Mark, the Louse says he was fired, in turn, because Warhammer drowned right out of the gate.  The Louse also says that the very people most responsible for the failure of Warhammer, all of whom he cannot stand – Paul Barnett, Rob Denton, and Jeff Hickman – are not only utterly incompetent, but they have been promoted or moved on to other projects.  At this point, the Louse seemed extremely bitter that these guys kept their jobs, while many other hard working developers are being laid off.

What are we to think of all this?  It's really, really hard to say.  Did Warhammer struggle, and fail to live up to expectations?  Absolutely.  It's also incomprehensible that WAR didn't emulate DAoC's endgame PvP.  This single feature would have almost guaranteed that WAR would have a core of dedicated players.

One of the most thought provoking elements that the Louse wrote about is the upcoming, and very promising MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.  BioWare is now a subsidiary to EA, and the Louse states with utter confidence that the game will fail.  In fact, the Louse claims that the game will not just fail, it will go down in in a colossal and legendary way.  Why?  In essence, the Louse says that some of the same supervisory practices are involved in the project, and (again), these kinds of supervisors have no idea what they are doing.  Oh, and he also mentioned that the game has already cost $300 million dollars in development, and will cost countless more before it's done.  (Rumor:  WoW cost about $50 million to develop).

These last allegations certainly caused the fanboys to come out of the woodwork.  The shop that's actually working on SWTOR is in Austin, far away from the Warhammer offices, the fans were quick to point out.  And the BioWare managers, the people who made all of BioWare's previous games so great, are still in charge.  What's more, the fanboys were anxious to remind everyone, BioWare has a long and proven track record.  Maybe the fans are right, but we won't know for sure until 2011 or 2012.

As for the rest of EA Louse's allegations, many are disputed.  Sanya Weathers herself commented, and indicated that the Louse is badly mistaken in regard to her case.  Others have chimed in, some indicating agreement, others offering contradictory factoids to those given by the Louse. 

In truth, there is no way to tell if any of this is true.  It may just be the rantings of a soon-to-be-laid-off employee.  Or it may be the inside scoop, from a guy who has seen it all, and is now ready to tell the world, simply because there is nothing to lose.   

Do these kinds of things take place inside MMO development houses?  Sure, there is no doubt that some of them do.  Look at Vanguard – much like the Louse, one source places the blame for the initial failure of Vanguard squarely at the feet of the company's most experienced and senior staff.  Are low level employees treated poorly?  Are the higher ups often exempt from blame?  These kinds of things are true of many companies.  Did EA force Warhammer out the door too soon, before it was ready?  EA has a reputation for doing exactly this kind of thing, so that also might be true. 

To be frank, fellow gamers, it's hard to know how much of this Kool-Aid to drink.  It's possible, though some facts are disputed, that the Louse is giving us the scoop.  It's possible that the biggest MMO on the horizon, SWTOR, will go down in flames.  It's also possible he's a ranting, extremely agitated employee who is simply pissed at EA.  Some of his claims ($300 million spent on SWTOR development?  Get real.) lack credibility.  However, I leave all of that for you to decide. 

Sadly, I have to bring this week's column to a close.  If you enjoyed this exercise in ex-employee ranting and random speculation, and want to see more of this kind of thing, come visit us over at Coolorama.com,  where we wallow about in these kinds of shenanigans each and every day.  For now, ciao!

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